What's your favorite caliber, and why?

[Cameramonkey]

View attachment 378295

Hey now, it was cool in the mid 90's.

 

[DadSmith]

Not disputing he Dr however there are exceptions. Dave Spaulding mentioned a case where a victim shot was at the hospital getting an MRI and something was jumping around inside his heart….it was a 22LR bullet he had just been shot with like a jumping bean every heart beat. He survived.

Real thugs don’t read gel tests. That said the best way is upper thoracic hits to the heart and aorta of the brain stem.

So no matter what you care practice in 3x5 cards and B8 repair centers.

I'd say he got very lucky.
How often has that happened?

 

[DadSmith]

This man evidently has a Time Machine as he lives in a decade where 40 is “universally beloved”

I love the 40 Cooper.

 

[BackFromDC]

9mm and .22lr for reasons others have covered. I also have kept .38Spl/.357Mag, I find it the most useful and pleasant to shoot among revolver calibers that are commercially common.

Calibers that I didn't stick with:
.40 S&W - Just didn't see the benefit, it's improvement over 9mm was only marginal and I didn't want to stock a whole other caliber.
.45 ACP - Just because I sold my Wilson Combat and haven't found anything else close to it. If I get a 1911 again I probably would start hoarding .45 ACP. I heard it suppresses great.
10mm - Great stats, just kinda expensive.
.44Spl/.44Mag - Didn't use much of it, even when I owned a revolver and a levergun in it. I also found it kinda expensive.

 

[Lost Californian]

My favorite handgun round for semiautos is the .357SIG. If I need to, I swap barrels to shoot .40S&W.

And when I go "under gunned with low capacity" revolvers, it is the .327FM.

 

[Bassat]

...Not from blood loss an hour later on a hospital bed. Him getting unalived is a consequence of stopping him.
...

I totally and completely disagree. If I am ever, God forbid, in a situation where a perpetrator forces me to fire shots that end his life, I will rest easy knowing that his passing was NOT due to ANYTHING I DID. His passing will be a CONSEQUENCE of his CHOICES.

 

[ECS686]

I'd say he got very lucky.
How often has that happened?

I have heard of several similar stories from reliable sources like Bolke Spaulding etc. I believe the case I mentioned was a 22 handgun as most all 22 hits from a rifle seem to have been fatal

I also will say I seen some of the most brutal blunt force trama as well as interviews a ton on inmates that have been shot with everything up to 308 and 7.62X39 and even 12 ga 00 buck walking around with maybe a limp within the Federal Bureau of Prison at a High US Penitentiary over my 20 years that real thugs are hard to kill.


I witnessed a shooting outside Memphis where we responded to a Deputy he center punched he suspect with a 45 acp 230 JHp and we got there deputy had him handcuffed and suspect was breathing hard and talking winded but talking I don’t know the specifics of internal but if it missed those vitals it was by a few Millimeters from looking.

It has also been reported the trama care and time to hospitals have improved to what they were 50, 40 or even 25-30 years ago.

That said still thoracic heart and aorta or brain stem is the best way.

 

[edporch]

I don't have any real experience with handguns, but I'm curious about what everyone else's favorite calibers are!

All things equal as far as availability, if I had to choose ONE handgun round I'd choose the 10mm Auto.
Reason being that it has such a wide variety of loads, from high velocity lighter bullets, to lower velocity heavier bullets, and a wide variety of bullet types to fit many situations.

LET me add that I also like the .357 Sig.

 

[1nderbeard]

Probably .357 because it's the caliber I own that produces the most energy on target. A versatile round that would allow for self-defense and deer hunting. Can also be reduced to .38 special loads in the same gun. Easy to reload.

I also like 9mm in a 43x.

First carry gun was a Glock 27, 40 cal. Horrible for a first carry gun but I learned to shoot it, and don't want to get rid of it.

 

[firecadet613]

Plenty of great calibers, it's hard to choose just one. Many great responses in this thread.

First carry gun was a Glock 27, 40 cal. Horrible for a first carry gun but I learned to shoot it, and don't want to get rid of it.

My first was also a 40 cal and I still have it. Picked up a second 40 as well, just to have two in that caliber.

 

[three50seven]

44 spl, just because

 

[Zjhagens]

I totally and completely disagree. If I am ever, God forbid, in a situation where a perpetrator forces me to fire shots that end his life, I will rest easy knowing that his passing was NOT due to ANYTHING I DID. His passing will be a CONSEQUENCE of his CHOICES.

You totally and completely misunderstand my point. If you’re thinking I’m saying the loss of life is the fault of the defender that’s not even remotely it.

I’m saying that the goal in a self defense situation is to stop, it is not to kill. BUT what is required to stop usually results in killing the attacker.

Don’t misunderstand this as a “I’d shoot him in the leg so I don’t kill him” brainless argument. Quite the opposite. Shoot center mass with the goal of a CNS hit because that’s what reliably puts a target on the ground. It also happens to be what reliably puts a target IN the ground.

This is about motivation for the use of your gun in defense, not blame.

 

[Amishman44]

Probably .357 because it's the caliber I own that produces the most energy on target. A versatile round that would allow for self-defense and deer hunting. Can also be reduced to .38 special loads in the same gun. Easy to reload.

First carry gun was a Glock 27, 40 cal. Horrible for a first carry gun but I learned to shoot it, and don't want to get rid of it.

.357 Magnum is, hands-down, my favorite revolver caliber...with .38's as a light load back-up!
My first semi-auto was a Glock 23 in .40 S&W, which I picked up on 9/11...
I still have and like .40 S&W, but prefer a .45 acp because I like it's accuracy and the way it shoots.

 

[Squid556]

.357 Magnum is, hands-down, my favorite revolver caliber...with .38's as a light load back-up!
My first semi-auto was a Glock 23 in .40 S&W, which I picked up on 9/11...
I still have and like .40 S&W, but prefer a .45 acp because I like its accuracy and the way it shoots

In non snub nose barrels…… there is something magical about .357 Magnum



Long live the odd digit powerhouse!

 

[Tradesylver]

38 Special & 22

 

[Michigan Slim]

Right now, as in this morning, I'm liking .22 Short. But usually it's .45 Auto.
It was .243 last weekend. Going to be .270 soon. Then .50.

 

[camaroz2808]

All things equal as far as availability, if I had to choose ONE handgun round I'd choose the 10mm Auto.
Reason being that it has such a wide variety of loads, from high velocity lighter bullets, to lower velocity heavier bullets, and a wide variety of bullet types to fit many situations.

LET me add that I also like the .357 Sig.

Would agree with the variety of loads for 10mm. Depending on how I do my reloads, I change my recoil springs or else I will have constant cycling issues.

 

[CrazyBagel169]

In non snub nose barrels…… there is something magical about .357 Magnum

View attachment 378723

Long live the odd digit powerhouse!

What does the snub nose do that makes the 357 not magical?

 

[92FSTech]

What does the snub nose do that makes the 357 not magical?

There's not enough barrel length to fully burn all the propellent, so you get a huge fireball and lots of recoil and blast since much of it burns outside the barrel. You still get more velocity that you would with a .38+p, but usually not enough to be worth it.

Some loads like Speer's Gold Dot Short Barrel use low flash, fast burning powders to get the most out of the short barrel, but most traditional magnum loads are going to see significant performance improvements out of the longer barrels.

This is .357 Mag out of a 2" S&W 640, just to give you an idea:


That load runs 1080fps out of the snubby, and 1260fps out of my 4" GP100. I haven't chronographed it out of my 18" Marlin 1894, but it's probably somewhere around 1700-1800fps based on other loads that I've measured.

 

[DadSmith]

I like 10mm.
It's an all around caliber that can be loaded with weak or full power loads to deal with whatever you need be it Kodiak Bears, deer, or bad guys.

I currently have a 1911 10mm I like a lot.
I'd like to get one if these newer full size 10mm that's been brought out recently by Sig, Springfield, and S&W.
I just haven't pulled thr trigger on one yet because I'm undecided which one yet. I'm currently trying to narrow it down to the one.

What got me interested in the 10mm was this.
While looking up a load for something else I ran across 10mm load data.
I was thinking this is as powerful or more so than a 357mag.
I always wanted a 357mag semiautomatic, but the prices were to much.
So when I seen 10mm was as powerful, or more so than 357mag I got me a G20sf, and loved shooting full power loads through it.
The best load I have is a 200gr WFNGC, 800x powder at 1258fps avg which is 702 ft lbs of energy out of a 4.5" barrel.
Federal makes a great SD HST load that isn't much stronger than a 40 Short & Weak that you can use also.
Other great loads for 10mm as well. To many to list.

So if you want a rd that is as powerful as a 357mag, but in a semiautomatic that doesn't cost a house payment get a polymer frame 10mm.